Automatic regulating device for a watch



April 26, 1960 U. GIGER AUTOMATIC REGULATING DEVICE FOR A WATCH Filed Dec. 15, 1956 Hg. 2 'Illtilcv g nited States Patent AUTOMATIC REGULATING DEVICE FOR A WATCH Application December 13, 1956, Serial No. 628,090

Claims priority, application Switzerland December 15, 1955 2 Claims. (Cl. 58-109) This invention relates to automatic regulating devices for watches, and more particularly to such devices in which the watch timing mechanism is adjusted every time the watch hands are set.

Devices of this kind, in which the regulator is moved towards slow or fast every time the hands are set backward or forward, are already known in the art. In these known devices thev regulator displacements correspond more or less to the hand displacements. Now, it the watch is at rest, the hands, must usually be displaced very much, thus putting the watch regulator com pletely out of order.-

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a watch with an automatic regulating device which moves the regulator only a little bit every time the hands are set.

Another object of the invention is to provide the watch with an automatic regulating device which moves the regulator in the right direction with respect to the necessary adjusting of the hands, even if the latter are first moved in the wrong direction before they are correctly set.

Still further objects of the invention will appear in the course of the following description.

One embodiment of the represented diagrammatically and by way of example in the drawings annexed to this specification, in which only the parts of the watch are shown which are necessary for the comprehension of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a partial plan view of the dial facing elements of a watch movement provided with an automatic regu= lating device according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a combination of two sectional views along the lines A-B-C and A-B-D of Fig. 1, obtained by superposition of the parts B-C and B--D.

The parts of the watch represented in the drawings are shown in the position in which the hands may be set by merely rotating the crown (not shown) fixed to the winding stem 1. The latter may be moved axially as usual from an inward winding position into the outward setting position and vice versa. A first stud 2 carried by the setting lever 4 engages a groove provided around the stem so that the setting lever rocks about its axle 3 upon axial displacements of the winding stem 1 from its winding towards its hand-setting position'and vice versa. A second stud 5 of the setting lever engages either one of the two notches provided as usual at the end of the resilient arm of the setting lever spring 6. Moreover, this stud 5 also engages a slot 7 provided in the arm 8a of a control lever 8 consisting of a thin flexible metal strip pivotally mounted on the movement by means of a shoulder screw 9. The lever 8, which has only a small axial free play on the shoulder of screw 9, is located between the lid 13 of the winding and setting spring 6. When the lever 8 moves upon an axial displacement of the winding and setting stem 1, a crank part 80 of the lever arm 8b engages a truncated conical head part 10a of a screw 10 having also a cylindrical part 10b. The cranked part 80 also engages a groove 11a of a clutch automatic regulating device is 2 ice ,7

member 11 shiftably and rotatably mounted on an axle 12 which is perpendicular to the watch movement. A free branch 15a of a U-shaped return-spring 15 located ina similarly shaped counter-sink of the base plate engages an axial flat portion 14 of the clutch member 11 to hold the latter in a determined angular position with respect to the watch movement. A large segment 17 and a smaller one 16 carrying both a small serrated toothing, are provided on the clutch member 11 below the flat portion 14 thereof. The toothed segment 17 meshes with a gear 18 which is also provided with small serrated teeth, and which and-setting stem,

mechanism and the setting lever is set with force fit onto a tubular projection of a normal toothed pinion 19. The latter is driven by the minute wheel 20 of the watch motion work. In the position represented in the drawings, the segment 16 drives a gearwheel 21 also provided with a small serrated toothing. A pinion 22 is fixed onto the axle of wheel 21 and its toothing meshes with a toothing 24a provided on the regulator adjusting arm 24. The underside face of gear 18 is situated below the underside face of wheel 21. The adjusting arm 24 and the regulator 25 itself consist as usual of a single stamped piece, so that the rotations of thepinion 22 are automatically transmitted to the regulator. During the axial shifting movements of the winding from the winding to the hand-setting position shown in the drawing, the setting-lever 4 rocks clockwise about its axle 3, and its stud 5 jumps from one notch of the setting lover spring into the other one. The stud 5 also slides within the slot 7 of the control lever 8 towards the axis of rotation 9 thereof, so that the lever 8 also pivots clockwise about its axle 9. The cranked part 8c of this control lever thus moves from the position represented in dot-dash lines to the position represented in full lines in Fig. 2. In the former position, the part is bent and it is engaged under the truncated conical head part 10a of screw 10. During the said axial movement of the winding and hand-setting stem, from its winding towards its setting position, the edge of the control-lever cranked part 8c slides upwards along the conical head part 10:: until it butts against the underface of the cylindrical head part 10b of the screw 10 (position represented in full lines in Fig. 2). In this position the crank lever arm 8b, 8c is still bent somewhat. Since the opposite edge of the cranked part 8c-of the control lever always engages the groove 11a of the clutch member11, the latter is shifted upwards along its axle 12 during the said axial movement of the winding and hand-setting stem. The clutch member is further arranged so that its toothed segments 16 and 17 do not engage the gear 18 and the wheel 21 when the stem 1 is in its winding position, whereas the said segments engage the wheel 21 and the gear 18, respectively, when the stem 1 is in its hand-setting po; sition. The position occupied by the clutch member 11 when the stem is in the winding position, is represented in dotdash lines in Fig. 2, whereas the other axial position of this clutch member is represented in full lines.

As a consequence of the above-mentioned arrangemnt according to which the underface of gear 18 is situated be-' low underface of wheel 21, it will be observed that the segment 17 engages the gear 18 before the segment 16 comes in contact with wheel 21.

i If pulling the stem 1 now from the winding position towards the hand-setting position, it could happen that the teeth of the segment 17 and of the gear 18 On the one hand, and of the segment 16 and the wheel 21 on the other hand, butt against one another and do not come in meshing relation, as shown in full lines in Fig. 2. Those abutments of the said toothings are, however, harmless because the lever arm 8b, 8c is flexible, so that this -lever may rock from the winding position into the hand-setting position without its simultaneous shifting the clutch member 12 into the definite position shown in full lines in Fig. 2. If the toothings of segment 17 and of gear 18 do not engage but butt against one another, when the control lever has already reached its handsetting position, it will be observed that the flexible arm 8b, 8c of the control lever at least presses the upper side faces of the teeth of segment 17 against the lower side faces of gear 18. Now, as soon as the motion work is operated by rotating the stem 1, the gear 18 rotates and the smallest displacement of the lever is, of course, already sufiicient to enable the teeth of the segment 17 en tering the gaps of gear 18. During this small angular initial displacement of gear 18, the clutch member obviously remains at rest because of the spring 15.

Since the under face of gear 18 is lower than the under face of wheel 21, the segment 17 engages the gear 13 before the upper side faces of the teeth or" segment 16 are moved by the exible arm he of the control lever to the plane of the under face of the wheel 21. If the segment .16 actually butts against the under face of wheel 21, it will be observed that the smallest rotation of the clutch member will here also enable the correct engagement of said toothings. The clutch member 11 is .now, of course, also driven by the watch motion work. As soon as the segment 17 has engaged the gear 18 and the segment as of the wheel 21, the clutch member may move axially under the action of the resilient lever arm 80 until it reaches the position shown in full lines in Fig. 2.

If the watch hands are now set, the motion work movements are transmitted to the regulator 25 by means of the minute Wheel 29, the pinion 19, the gear 18, the clutch member 11 with its toothed segments 17 and 16, the wheel 21, its axle, the pinion 22 and the toothing 24a of the adjusting arm 24 of the regulator. These transmitting means are now, of course, arranged so that if the watch is slow and if the hands must accordingly be set forward, the regulator will be moved against fast and vice versa.

The displacement of the regulator is, however, limited by the length of the segment 16, so that one hand-setting operation can only move the regulator at most through a predetermined angle which does not depend on the displacement of the hands. If the minute hand is displaced for several minutes the toothed segment 16 leaves the wheel 21, so that a further rotation of the clutch member 11 in the same direction does no longer drive Wheel 21 and move the regulator.

If the hands are displaced still more, the segment 17 also leaves the gear 18. However, the spring always If the Watch hands setting now first occur in the wrong direction, the regulator will not only be restored into its previous position, but it will be adjusted in the other direction, since the spring 15 always tends to maintain the clutch member 11 in an intermediate position. When returning the hands into their original position, the clutch member '11 will, of course, come back at least until it reaches the position represented in full lines in Fig. 2. If the hands are then set in the right direction, the regulator will also be set in the corresponding direction.

When returning the stem to the winding position after the hand setting operation has been made, the control lever 8 pivots counter-clockwise, Fig. 2, and the edge of its cranked arm slides along the truncated conical screw part 10:: while shifting the clutch member 11 downwards until its segments 17, 16 leave the gear 18 and the wheel 21, respectively. The spring 15 will then return the free clutch member in its original angular position shown in Fig. 1, so that every part of the device described is again in its original position, ready for a new hand-setting operation.

While one embodiment of the invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings, it should be observed that various changes in the arrangement of parts, sizes and shape could be resorted to, without departing from the spirit or sacrificing the advantages of the invention which is only limited by the subjoined claims.

I claim:

1. in an automatic regulating device for a watch move ment comprising a regulating member and a motion work with a setting lever movable between hand-setting and winding positions, the combination of a clutch means shiftably mounted on the watch movement along an axis perpendicular thereto, and a pivotally mounted control lever means operated by said setting lever, said control lever means moving said clutch means to an engaged position connecting said motion work and said regulating ember together when said setting lever is in hand-setting position and to a disengaged position disconnecting-said motion work and said regulating member from one another, when said setting lever is in winding position, said clutch means disconnecting the regulating member from the motion Work upon large displacements of the latter, said watch movement carrying a fixed truncated conical part, and said control lever means comprising a flexible arm engaging both said clutch means and said fixed conical part, the latter being located in the path of movement of said control lever means for bending said flexible arm for shifting said clutch means axially during turning of said control lever means by said setting lever.

2. In an automatic regulating device for a watch movement comprising a regulating member and a motion work with a setting lever movable between hand-setting and winding positions, the combination of a clutch means shiftably mounted on the watch movement along an axis perpendicular thereto, and a pivotally mounted control lever means operated by said setting lever, said control lever means moving said clutch means to an engaged position connecting said motion Work and said regulating member together when said setting lever is in handsetting position and to a disengaged position disconnecting said motion work and said regulating member from one another, when said setting lever is in winding position, said clutch means disconnecting the regulating member from the motion work upon large displacements of the latter, said watch movement carrying a fixed truncated conical part, and said control lever means comprising a flexible arm engaging both said clutch means and said fixed conical part, the latter being located in the path of movement of said control lever means for bending said flexible arm in 'a direction perpendicular to the watch movement for shifting said clutch means axially during turning of said control lever means bysaid setting lever.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 721,361 Engwall Feb. 24, 1903 2,554,029 Holdrnan May 22, 1951 2,858,029 Rabinow Oct. 28, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 541,463 Germany Jan. 13, 1932 152,943 Switzerland May 16, 1932 248,136 Switzerland Nov. 1, 1952 287,282 Switzerland July 1, 1953 

